Sunday, March 20, 2016

Intransigence Wins, Common Sense Loses

I am disappointed. There was a compromise reached a while
back where a section of the Kotel was designated for those among us that do not
want to participate in traditional methods of prayer at the Kotel Plaza. They would instead be
able to pray any way they wished at ‘Robinson’s Arch’… another section out of sight from the Kotel Plaza that would
not disturb those who wished to continue prayer along traditional lines.

So that women who wished to wear Talis and Tefillin, or those
who wished to pray together with members of the opposite sex would be able to
do so without disrupting the traditional prayer goers.

To be clear, I am opposed to these movements for ideological
reasons. I have stated my reasons in the past and will not do so here as they
are beyond the scope of this post. But even though I opposed these movements, I
supported the compromise because it was the lesser of two evils. I was tired of
the constant confrontation and the occasional reactive violence it engendered
from Charedi zealots. It allowed the status quo to remain at the Kotel
Plaza.

I am a believer in peace. And this compromise seemed to be
the means of achieving peace between heterodox movements and the Orthodox establishment
that governs all religious matters in the State of Israel. There was some
Kvetching on both sides about the compromise. But for the most part this compromise
seemed to settle things down.

The Kotel Rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz was on board with it. And
even the Charedi Kenesset members seemed to grudgingly go along with it. Their
reasoning was very practical and I agreed with them. There were bigger fish to fry.
And this one was not worth the price of strident unalterable opposition. A
price that may have destroyed the ruling coalition of which they are now a
part. And from which they have gotten many concessions. Not the least of which
was restoring the financial aid to their Charedi constituents that was taken
away from them by the last governing coalition.

Finally! …I thought. The Charedi politicians were using common
sense and letting this one go. Peace at last… or as they say on the Charedi
world ‘Shalom Al Yisroel’. Everyone was more or less happy. Nobody got
100% of what they wanted but they were more
or less satisfied... happy to be done with it! The Charedi world was not endorsing
this new arrangement. They didn’t vote for it. They just didn’t block it. They
could still say they reject the validity of heterodox movements.

Heterodox movements did not get the Kotel Plaza, but at
least they got a part of the Kotel with which they could do whatever they
wanted. Plans were underway for a massive development of that area that would
make it more accessible and user friendly.

But it didn’t last long. The underlying Charedi opposition
was simply too much to bear passively. Rabbi Rabinowitz backed off of his initial
acceptance of the compromise. What precipitated this radical turn? Apparently
it was the Prime Minister’s invitation to
Reform and Conservative leaders to celebrate their ‘victory’. That was
too public for the Charedi politicians. I
guess Charedi politicians do not want to appear in any way compromising with movements
that are heretical. That would go against everything they stand for. They have
never compromised before and they were not about to start now. “What”, they
might have said “were we thinking?!”

I think that were thinking rationally for a change.
Unfortunately this is Israel. And rationality seems to always take a back seat
to rigidity. Compromise is a word they do not understand. Except for one brief
moment in time.

The compromise as it stands now has been scuttled and is now
under government review to see if the compromise can be adjusted to satisfy all
parties.

Sure!

But then again, what was I thinking? Charedi intransigence
is the rule of the day in Israel! It wouldn’t be Israel without it. Nothing is
going to get into the way of that. Certainly not common sense.

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About Me

My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.